Sarcan and I host our guides and FAQs for The Secret World here because it's really tedious to write and maintain long guides and FAQs inside of forums. Also, this wiki engine offers a built-in Google Translate feature for every page, which can be helpful for TSW's wide international audience. Also, most of the bigger game wikis and guide sites are full of annoying advertising spam, and the wikis can be especially hostile to posting guidance and advice. Here, we can keep everything updated nicely, no one can revert or delete our stuff, and one link from forums will always point to the latest and greatest. Also, this wiki engine renders nicely iPad-friendly websites.

So enjoy what you find under our two respective Guides/FAQs menus, and keep checking this home page regularly for notices about new updates and changes.

BTW, the traffic to this site is not monetized in any way, and you are not subjected to any advertising. This information resource is just a labor of love.

Update notices

I've adjusted my "easter egg" page yet again to fix the omission of Bloodsport from yesterday's revision. Lost it in a copy-paste error and didn't notice the omission until several of you kindly pointed it out in comments to my last update post. I think this version is golden now.

BTW, in case some of you wonder whether I play it too "fast and loose" with my builds:

By design, build mechanics are very fluid and flexible. There are core "themes" that make any build work, but there are always one or two passives that are "least important" and can be situationally swapped out with any other passive to suit the encounter or the type of gameplay you're aiming for. This applies specifically to my 5 decks in the "easter egg" page in that the core "heal engine" can be stronger or weaker as needed to make room for other passives, and the core "penetration stacker engine" can likewise be made stronger or weaker as needed to make room. Specifically: Leech Therapy is the passive that can be removed from the "heal engine" as needed, and Dark Potency is the passive that can be removed from the "penetration stacker engine".

It's tough to communicate these nuances and decisions in written form without a lot of successive revisions to the page, which takes time. And I've been too busy playing the game since early-access to spend much time here doing wiki updates. ^.^

The Post-Op nerf threw me for a loop and I needed to find a couple hours on TestLive to really hone in on a suitable alternative. I previously preferred Anima Shot over Anima Burst because Anima Shot puts out more damage per attack, and because Post-Op and Leech Therapy both made Anima Shot heal essentially on par with Anima Burst and Healing Sparks. - Comments: 5

If you had previously found my "easter egg" page showing you the starting builds that I'm using for my first vertical progression, be aware that what I had before is now out of date due to the nerf to Post-Op. I've adjusted all the builds to use a different arrangement for the healing side of things. Tested the new healing "core" of all the decks and it works a peach. I can equal the healing output of the 6x best hots that you can stack with Fist healing. I tested both the Fist core and the Rifle core while letting swarms of werewolves chew on me in Beseiged Farmlands. Both the healing cores put out pretty much the same total healing mitigation while I just stood there and did nothing but heal myself through the onslaught. - Comments: 13

Got definitive word from a dev over on TestLive forums. Post-Op was indeed nerfed just before pre-release launch and is working as intended.

The Post-Op ability is intended to work with Leech abilities which apply a buff. Abilities such as Anima Shot which trigger a heal based on the damage dealt will not trigger the heal from the Post-Op ability.

Welp. I just got around to picking up Post-Op (Rifle 27 AP), which was formerly in beta one of the cornerstones of decent AR healing. It was working with Anima Shot and Anima Burst right up to launch over on TestLive, but I see now in Live that neither Anima Shot nor Anima Burst is triggering it at all. Perhaps this was an intentional nerf, which is unfortunate since IMO AR was the only adequate healing weapon and Fist and Blood were both nerfed too hard just before launch. But in case it's not a nerf but an unintentional bug, I urge you all to file an in-game bug report that "Post-Op is not triggering when the leech from Anima Shot or Anima Burst ends, so it is effectively worthless at the moment".

Edit: After extensive testing just now (Tuesday afternoon) on TestLive, the best sheer healing output for the fewest healing-based actives and passives is currently as follows:

Passives: Increased Dosage (Rifle 12 AP) to make Shot of Anima much stronger (the leech component of Shot of Anima is useless), Healing Sparks (Fist 21 AP) to add a moderate +heal to every activation of Anima Burst, and finally, if you have a dependable Affliction mechanic in your build (either Anticoagulant or Bloodsport), then Leech Therapy (Rifle 9 AP) adds another nice +heal to every activation of Shot of Anima.

That's it. Everything else in Rifle is crap by comparison, if you're going for the minimal amount of healing abilities to leave room for other things. Although of course if you're looking to stack as many heals as possible in a pure healing build, then of course there are some other Rifle heals that can be worthwhile additions. - Comments: 10

I've seen enough well-intentioned questions about "the end game" on the forums that it seemed useful to add a section about what, exactly, constitutes "end-game" content here in TSW. Enjoy. - Comments: 0

The forum poster 2XS found an error in the Synergy combos section of my Build Mechanics guide, where I mistakenly said that 12 Gouge would trigger off the Afflicted state. I made that mistake when I was dissecting my build that had this nice passive stacker of Weakens. 12 Gouge triggers every time you make a Penetrating hit, so it's really a third passive that works well with what I was formerly calling the Affliction - Penetration Booster combo. Hats off to 2XS for letting me know about this goof. ^.^ - Comments: 0

I have added my Ability Spreadsheet to the list of Guides. It is hosted here adn on Google Docs for your use. Hope you find it useful.

I have also add Sarcan's Random Information section where I will be documenting various data. This will include things like theorycraft, cost of inventory expansion and what ever else I think would be good for the community to know. Stay tooned as this area develops. - Comments: 1

I have finished validating the Skill Point (SP) Chart and all values are up to date. I also re-ordered the page to match the opder you see it in game.

I am also currently in progress of gathering the data to determine the ability growth based on Combat Power, Attack Power and Healing Power. This will take some time, but be on the look out for the resulting in the future. If anyone wants to help with this endevor, let me know.